Memories of good laughs, good character

EDITORIAL NOTEBOOK: REMEMBERING JUDGE MACE THURMAN

Memories of good laughs, good character

Saturday, September 12, 2009

 

Of all the stories told on Mace B. Thurman Jr., my favorite involves a defendant whom the longtime district judge had sentenced to 30 years in prison.

“But, judge, I’m 60 years old. I can’t do 30 years,” the hapless defendant replied.

“Well, son,” replied Thurman, “just do the best you can.”

Like so many courthouse yarns, that story may be apocryphal, and some tell it as happening in the late Judge Tom Blackwell’s court.

It fits Thurman because it was like him to exhort people to do their best even in the worst of circumstances. Thurman, who died this week, was a highly respected jurist, but even more he was good man who really never lost faith that some good could be found in even the worst of us.

That’s a testament to both faith and character considering that Thurman spent five decades judging people who were accused of everything from writing bad checks to murder. That passing parade would have brought out the cynic in most of us, but Thurman never surrendered.

His appearance, his voice and his mannerisms bore a faint resemblance to Jack Benny’s, making him the centerpiece routine of courthouse lawyers whose inner stand-up comedian was unleashed after a couple of drinks.

“What we’re dealing with is a legend (with) a reputation for no nonsense,” Richard Pena, former president of the Travis County Bar Association, said at Thurman’s retirement party in 1990. Determined to get to the truth behind the legend, Pena said he asked if it was true that Thurman sentenced his brother and sister to prison.

” ‘That’s not true,’ I was told. ‘Judge Thurman doesn’t have a brother.’ ”

By his own telling, Thurman sentenced between 32,000 and 34,000 defendants between 1957 and 1990.

Thurman was a commanding presence, not an overbearing one. It didn’t take young lawyers long to learn that. And while lawyers who practiced in his court may have mimicked Thurman’s voice and gestures, nobody made fun of him.

And while he was inclined to give defendants second chances, he was no pushover. A defendant getting probation also got a lecture about finding a job and becoming a productive citizen.

Woe betide the defendants who breached that trust. They found themselves on the next bus to prison.

Blackwell, whose tenure on the bench overlapped Thurman’s, told a story about a young fellow who was in Thurman’s court on a burglary beef. The accusation was buttressed by the fact that the defendant’s fingerprints were all over the crime scene.

Blackwell quoted Thurman as telling the man, ” ‘I hope you’ve learned something from this.’ And (the defendant) said, ‘I sure have. Next time, I’ll wear gloves.’ “

Thurman was 91 when he died. In the 19 years since he left the bench, a new generation of lawyers and prosecutors has walked in and out of the Travis County criminal courts. It is their misfortune that they never knew the Mace B. Thuman Jr. or the Tom Blackwell whose names grace the building in which they practice their profession.

Those of us who knew Thurman and Blackwell are fortunate that we knew them as human beings and not just names chiseled into stone.

Tarrytown United Methodist Church sheltered many a mixed emotion Friday when Judge Mace B. Thurman Jr. made us all rise one last time.

— Arnold García Jr

The Immigrant Experience Cartoon

VIVIR EN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS: UNA GUÍA PARA JÓVENES INMIGRANTES

Handbook for Undocumented Youth (Spanish Edition)

Wednesday September 16, 2009

Seem to being seeing a disturbing trend of LPRs getting detained in their homes or being mailed NTAs based on old crimes. What is strangest to me is that these people have not filed anything recently with immigration, have not any recent problems with the law, and have not travelled. It seems like immigration is running random checks of the LPRs in their system. I have seen 7 such cases in the last month and half or so.

-Tom

The Strange Case of Rio Rico

U.S. citizens once cut off from their country by change in course of river…

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